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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349211">Isa. Time to wake up.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticky/pseuds/Ticky'>Ticky</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Battle, Childhood Memories, Hurt/Comfort, Keyblade Graveyard (Kingdom Hearts), M/M, Twilight Town (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:34:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349211</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticky/pseuds/Ticky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two different contexts where Lea asks Isa to wake up.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            A translation of

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23310514">Isa. Time to wake up.</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticky/pseuds/Ticky">Ticky</a>.
        </li>

    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lea held his breath as he narrowly held off Xemnas' attack. He jumped back a few steps between himself and his former superior, trying to push him to move if he wanted to reach him. He was always on the move, watching for an opening in Xemnas' offensives. Xemnas was clearly used to close combat, unlike Lea. But for the time being, Lea was using it to his advantage.</p>
<p>Xemnas' strategy was simple and it had not escaped the three Keyblade carriers. He used Isa as a shield and counted on the berserker to overwhelm them, allowing him to attack them sneakily at will. Roxas, Xion and Lea without needing to discuss it, had immediately adapted their own tactics to those of their opponent. The teenagers took care of Isa while Lea focused on keeping the attention of Xemnas. He would tire him out with long-distance attacks with his chakrams and rub shoulders with him, only when he made an attempt to attack one of the children. Lea did his best to hinder his movements and to push him as far away as possible from the other three.</p>
<p>While keeping eye contact with Xemnas from the corner of his eye as the nobody regained strength a few yards away, Lea quickly turned his attention to the two teenagers. Xion and Roxas had managed to encircle Isa, who seemed to have slowed the pace of his charges. Lea had crossed swords with him enough in the past to recognize the signs that the berserker was beginning to feel the aftershocks of his trance. He met Xion's gaze and exchanged a nod with her.</p>
<p>A movement in his peripheral vision shifted Lea's attention to his opponent. He barely had time to raise one of his chakrams to protect himself from the glowing laser beam that was being thrown in his direction. He leapt to the side dodging the second laser and in the blink of an eye merged his two chakrams for his keyblade. Xemnas took advantage of this half-second of preparation to melt on him again. Lea used all his reflexes to stop his assaults. Several times he felt the heat of the lasers brushing against his face. His right shoulder was starting to really hurt, affecting his concentration.</p>
<p>Just as he saw Xemnas' two stealthy lasers aimed at his chest, he finally heard Xion's call.</p>
<p>"Lea! Now!"</p>
<p>With a rasp, he went on the offensive and violently pushed the nobody as far away from the center of the arena as possible. He put all his strength into his blows, almost sacrificing his shoulder, and managed to break through Xemnas' defenses. He finally sent him to eat the dust with a rain of brutal blows. Contenting himself with only neutralize his opponent for a moment, Lea ran to join Xion and Roxas facing Isa.</p>
<p>Lea quickly gauged Isa, who was now clearly weakened by his trance. Bent in half with one arm across his belly, he was still able to carry his claymore defensively at arm's length. His luminescent eyes gazed at his three opponents. His face expressed nothing, only his panting breath and his posture curved over himself made it possible to guess his exhaustion.</p>
<p>At the sight of his condition, Lea's heart tightened and for a brief moment his instinct prompted him to run to Isa to embrace him, but the call of his name by Roxas made him regain his footing in reality. With a shake of the head, he mentally reproached himself for letting himself be ruled by his impulses and resumed his guard. They had to take advantage of the time when Isa was weakened to paralyze him.</p>
<p>"Let's go!" he shouted to the two teenagers. Roxas and Xion nodded resolutely and went on the offensive, encircling the berserker, while Lea leapt into the air.</p>
<p>At the sight of his moving opponents, Isa straightened up and raised his claymore. Lea was faster and with a snap of his fingers he surrounded Isa with a barrier of flames.</p>
<p>"Don't move," he warned.</p>
<p>Surrounded, the berserker roared and raised his arms in front of his face to protect himself from the fire licking his body. For a moment, the sight of Isa in the flames brought up memories in Lea's mind: memories of a time in Radiant Garden when he and Isa challenged each other - one with his gift, the other with his curse. It was nothing but a game then. A dangerous but exciting game for the seventeen-year-olds that they were. The game had at least had the benefit of alleviating Isa's torment with a condition he did not want and could not control, and Lea's unspoken fear of his friend.</p>
<p>Now there was no more talk of playing. The Organization had long since changed the rules.</p>
<p>Isa's promise at that time that whatever he was, he would never hurt Lea, had been cracked for some time.</p>
<p>Three times Isa had been on the verge of finishing him off.</p>
<p>But a little voice in his head whispered to him that this meant too that three times Isa had not gone through with it.</p>
<p>Feeling his determination wavering once again, Lea breathed out slowly so as not to be overwhelmed by his emotions.</p>
<p>Besides, Isa, wasn't he influenced by Xehanort? continued to insist this little voice. Did he really have the *choice*?</p>
<p>For his first attempt on his life, Lea agreed to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the next two... It was Isa's choice to abandon his heart and join Xemnas again, he recalled angrily. When Lea had called him to join him on the clock tower of Twilight Town, he had turned his back on him. At that very moment, Isa must have felt no remorse for fighting them. So he had no remorse either, he made sure.</p>
<p>Lea invoked his two chakrams and threw them coldly at Isa in coordination with the assaults of his teammates.</p>
<p>They repeated their attack again and again. Isa uttered a cry of pain with each blow. After repeating the same routine several times, Xion and Roxas made a final attack and moved aside to let Lea carry the last charge.</p>
<p>"Okay. Here comes the final touch!"</p>
<p>Letting himself fall from his high position, Lea plunged on Isa and hit him deadly.</p>
<p>At least, that's what he tried to convince himself.</p>
<p>When he stood up to Isa, Isa was still standing. At the time, he almost felt like giving a sour laugh, blaming Isa for not wanting to make things easy. But the vision of Isa in front of him cut him off from irony. Staggering, bent over, his face finally brought out the suffering.</p>
<p>Ignoring and not feeling the flames that were still crackling around them, Lea slowly approached him, keeping a chakram ready on his shoulder. Teeth clenched, eyes closed and breathing heavily, Isa held one hand at his scar without really touching it. As if feeling the scar would only make the pain worse. Despite the violent assault he had just suffered, Lea noticed that he still had his claymore in his hand. He stopped a few centimeters from the berserker, remaining on his guard even though the berserker seemed not to realize his presence.</p>
<p>At that moment, Lea knew that he could easily deal him a fatal blow. But against all odds, he raised his free hand and gently placed it on Isa's cheek.</p>
<p>"Isa...", he called him in a breath.</p>
<p>Isa lifted his head to him as he touched him and opened his eyes. Lea's breath stopped for a moment as the two bright orbs that were his eyes were plunged into his. Once they were blue-toned, now they were golden.</p>
<p>Lea remembered, as a younger boy, telling Isa that his eyes, when he was in a trance, reminded him of two little moons. Isa then told him with an incredulous laugh to stop talking nonsense. Probably, he had thought Lea was laughing at him.</p>
<p>Unable to take his eyes off him, Lea stroked his cheek. For a moment he hoped he could still reason with him. Convince him again to join him, to turn his back on Xemnas. That maybe it wasn't necessary to annihilate him. Because deep inside him, the little voice was telling him that he didn't have the strength to do it. That he couldn't do it.</p>
<p>"Isa," he repeated. "It's time to wake up."</p>
<p>He doesn't know what he was waiting for when he did this. What he especially didn't expect was the plea that came out of Isa's mouth in a trembling voice.</p>
<p>"Axel..."</p>
<p>Lea didn't have the opportunity to respond as he had to hurriedly avoid the darkening shadow on him. Thanks to his reflexes, he dodged Xemnas' attack and had just enough time to pull Roxas by the hood before he was impaled.</p>
<p>The three Keyblade bearers concentrated on Xemnas' attacks. Although the flames were now extinguished, Isa remained in the middle of the arena, incapacitated. For a brief moment they seemed to have superiority over the fight, but their advantage was short-lived when Isa rose again into the air with his arms outstretched.</p>
<p>Lea felt disgust and disappointment at Isa, who plunged back into a new trance. He sighed with irritation as the berserker fell to the ground, phantasmagorical blue trails floating around his head, his face impenetrable again. If he was in pain, he let nothing more show.</p>
<p>"Don't worry, Axel!" Xion reassured him with conviction. "You take care of Xemnas, we'll take care of Saix. Same as before."</p>
<p>She and Roxas didn't expect answers from him as they ran to meet Isa once more. He gritted his teeth and watched with a knot in his stomach as the two teenagers warded off the berserker's brutal attacks.</p>
<p>His reason told him that it should be the other way around. It was he who should confront Isa. He knew all his moves, his flaws. Roxas and Xion could have the upper hand against Xemnas.</p>
<p>But he knew that in this set-up, that little voice in his head would probably have shaken his resolve and he would have led them to their downfall because of his cowardice. And surely, Roxas and Xion had guessed it.</p>
<p>Lea turned his attention to Xehanort's nobody and charged with a scream of rage.</p>
<p>In spite of everything, until the end, Lea demanded that Isa wake up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning sun was beating down on the bay window bringing a warm atmosphere to the dining room. When a ray of sunshine hit Lea's face, he closed his eyes and smiled serenely, savouring for a moment the gentle warmth on his face.</p><p>He would never tire of the light of Twilight Town.</p><p>Eventually the sunlight disappeared, hidden by a cloud. Lea stretched out and set his eyes on the two teenagers in front of him. They were both busy reading mangas, nibbling their breakfast in no hurry. Lea had no idea what they were reading, but it must have been very exciting from the way they were immersed in it.</p><p>Roxas had stuck his manga between the cereal box and the butter dish. He was reading it over his bowl of hot chocolate, sipping it slowly as his eyes wandered through the drawings, only resting it briefly on the table to turn to the next page.</p><p>Xion had laid his comic flat on the table, holding the book open with a tablespoon. With her eyes glued to her own manga, she was devouring her butter and jam toast. When the spread began to run down her hand, Lea watched in hilarity as she stuck her tongue out and twisted her neck awkwardly to lick the flowing jelly without dropping the toast she was still holding in the same hand. And all this without taking her eyes off the book.</p><p>Looking at the two teenagers with a peaceful smile, Lea remembered when he and Isa were their age and spent the bad weather days reading entire sets of manga in Isa's room. Bickering sometimes because one of them did not read fast enough the volume on which the other wanted to continue. From time to time, one of them fell asleep with his manga on his face, overcome by boredom, with just the sound of the pages being turned by his friend and the rain beating on the tiles to rock him.</p><p>Lea glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was past ten o'clock. He broke the quasi-religious silence.</p><p>"I think it's time to get ready," he announced, stretching out one last time.</p><p>Xion and Roxas simultaneously looked up at the clock and sighed.</p><p>"Already!" Roxas groaned. "We've only just got up."</p><p>"That was an hour ago", Lea laughed.</p><p>The two teenagers finished their meal in a few bites and got up. Out of habit, they began to clear the table.</p><p>"Leave them alone," Lea stopped them as she got up. "I'll take care of it. Why don't you go get ready. It'd be nice if we left by eleven o'clock."</p><p>"Okay!" they answered in unison.</p><p>They grabbed their manga and rushed noisily upstairs. While the mansion came alive with Xion and Roxas getting ready, Lea stacked the dishes and started putting them in the dishwasher. After cleaning the dining room, it was his turn to go upstairs.</p><p>In the hallway, he heard Roxas and Xion in their adjoining rooms, talking loudly to each other about their afternoon's programme. Without stopping, Lea continued up the narrow staircase that went up under the roof.</p><p>Slowly returning to his room, he found that Isa had rolled in his sleep on his place against the wall,  since he had left him almost two hours ago. He crossed the room to draw the curtains, letting the golden light illuminating the room. Behind him he heard Isa quivering in his sheets as the sudden brightness in the room awakened him.</p><p>With a big smile, he reached the bed in a few strides and climbed onto it without too much violence to crawl on all fours above the other man.</p><p>"Isa... " he called out to him in a singing voice.</p><p>Isa turned on his back, moaning, covering his eyes with his forearm. Lea laid across him, his two arms on either side of his head and felt Isa's body contract beneath him as he stretched his limbs numb from sleep. Gently Lea moved Isa's arm to the side, clearing his face and, ignoring his grunting, tenderly brushed the few strands of hair that had pressed against his skin with his fingertips.</p><p>"Isa..." he repeated softly. "Time to wake up."</p><p>Isa's chest gently lifted Lea as he sighed deeply. Isa finally opened his turquoise eyes and his sleepy gaze immediately landed on Lea's cheerful face.</p><p>"What time is it?" he grumbled in a sleepy voice.</p><p>"It's past ten o'clock," Lea answered. "Someone slept in late this morning, didn't he" he teased, kissing the bridge of his nose.</p><p>Isa smiled at his gesture and with a whisper, wrapped his arms around Lea's neck, dragging him against him in a languorous kiss. Lea allowed himself to do so without complaint and returned his affection with the same tenderness.</p><p>For a moment Lea forgot his surroundings, savouring Isa's lips against his. He felt the warmth of his skin and the beat of his heart beneath him. Isa's fingers slipped onto the back of his neck, massaging his scalp and causing a slight shiver down his spine.</p><p>Lea would have stayed like this for a while but he reluctantly interrupted the kiss. He stood up on one arm to stare at Isa.</p><p>Isa's eyes were sharper now and a full smile underlined his face. With a growl, he sat down shaking the bed and tilted his head towards Lea's.</p><p>"Hello, Lea," he whispered against his lips.</p>
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